Self Portrait in Yellow

Courtesy of the Simpsons Movie Website.

The Boys of Horror

If I was on some TV talent show, I'd say the last few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster. My Nana died a couple of weeks ago, and although it was a long time coming, and ultimately a relief as she was so ill for so long, it's still hit us all hard, especially after the funeral was done. On a positive note, Our Paul asked me to be the godfather for his new baby, which is brilliant, and has given everyone the chance to do awful Marlon Brando impressions, which is no bad thing.

So, it was great to go away last weekend and get my head together, locked in a flat with no heating or hot water in Whitby watching horror films with the Boys of Horror...

Boys of Horror embark on Whitby's inaugral manned Space mission. L-R: Matt, Steve, Chris, John

Whitby is great, and our flat was about 500 yards from the centre of town. We did all the touristy bits; got soaked on a boat trip, climbed the 199 steps up to the church on the hill, and me and Chris went to the Dracula experience - only £1.95 for one of the most shoddily put together exhibitions ever! That's not to say it wasn't absolutely fantastic. Imagine if you had a job lot of old mannequins, and some sensor lights from Wilkos. Then you decided to turn your tiny 2 up 2 down terrace into a leading attraction, you could build this show for about 150 quid and just watch the money roll in. It's essentially the key scenes from Coppolla's Dracula set up in different rooms, which light up when you go in. Nothing about the original story, Stoker or other interpretations, just a few dummies dressed up, with the added bonus of the ghost face killer from Scream jumping out at you (which I think was cut from the original Dracula) now and again, the worst Summer Job in the world.





As I said though, it was great, I'm going to open up my garden as the Honey I shrunk the Kids experience by leaving some Lego and Playmobils on the lawn.

The highlight of the weekend though was watching a rough cut of Steve's film, Mum and Dad. It was, even in its rough state, a great piece of low-budget British horror. I can't wait to see the finished version, as it's already so powerful and shocking. The acting is really good, and it doesn't do the usual characters for 20 minutes, running around for 70 minutes plus tacked on potential sequel scene, it's got strong characterisation and story developmnet throughout.

I also bought myself a Whitby Lucky Duck. I've decided to document Duck-related luck, to see if it works, and so I can get my letter in the window of the lucky duck shop.



Me and Matt have gone into competition to see who's luck works best - he has joined Match.com, I have bought a small piece of duck shaped glass. Surely my wishing on an inanimate object has more chance of bringing luck than practical life altering steps? We shall see...

Must get back to Whitby soon, there's still a fortune teller and a victorian photo studio I have to waste cash on...

Spook in 3d

Here's some pictures of my basic model in Maya for Spook, the main character from the new film. Looks half baked I know, but I'll put up some rendered and coloured versions soon...





Note to self - make everyone bald next time.

The Blog of the Damned

I started a new blog today, The Blog of the Damned, inspired by a blog post by Bruce Mason on the PART blog.

It's called Blog of the Damned as a punning tribute to Charles Fort's Book of the Damned, his collection of tales of weird beasts, strange sightings and odd goings on. The Blog of the Damned aims to find and reblog the odd, spooky and anomalous aspects of the internet...

Have a look, and please contact me if you discover any ghosts out there in Cyberspace....

Cartoons and Compost

I've just spent the day in the garden, tending my veg patch! It's quite a laugh this amateur gardener business, although my hatred of slugs and snails has reached epic proportions - there has never been a wronger thing, what is the point of them? They're just big lumps of congealed phlegm with stomachs. Stomachs that, if they come anywhere near my tomatoes, will be squished into the path!

Here's some pictures of my feeble green fingered attempts;





I made an animatic from the storyboard for the new film the other day - it looks good. I also modelled the main character in MAYA, which also looks good. We're going to work with limited props and sets, so that it feels like a soundstage - Robert Fuest at Bradford talked about the concessions to budget they had to make for The Final Programme. They would hang window frames and set a table in a blackened space to create rooms. I like that idea. There's a temptation to add detail in CGI, but I'd rather have Pocoyo than Gollum anyday... Here's a few sketches from the storyboard;






Oops, that one looked a bit rude didn't it? Errr...




I've also been getting back into Flash in quite a big way, mainly because of my teaching at Loughborough. I've been building, with one of my classes, a virtual version of the building where they work. I'll post a link once it's up. In the meantime, I'm working on this virtual map for the Harris in Preston. It's just a prototype for now, but I'm excited by the possibilities it opens up. Hmmm..., I can feel a little project coming on.